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LA  JUL:  '  \ 

ECOXOMIC    MONOGRAPHS.      No.    III. 


THE 


TARIFF    QUESTION 


ITS     RELATION 


THE    PRESENT    COMMERCIAL    CRISIS 

BY 
HORACE    WHITE 

Reprinted    prom    "  The    Galaxy  "    Magazine    for    October,    1877 


NEW    YORK 

G.    P.    PUTNAM'S  SONS 


THE    TARIFF    QUESTION. 


"pvISCUSSION  of  the  tariff  question  should  un- 
-■-^  doubtedly  be  predicated  upon  the  commercial 
and  industrial  condition  of  our  country,  which  we  all 
know  is  that  of  depression,  discouragement,  and  even 
dismay.  During  the  past  four  years  the  catalogue  of 
bankruptcy  has  been  drawn  out  in  long  lines  of  disaster. 
The  industries  of  the  country  were  never,  in  the  mem- 
ory of  this  generation,  so  smitten  with  paralysis.  Our 
iron  and  coal  trades  are  at  the  last  gasp,  as  regards 
profitable  employment  to  the  labor  and  capital  invested 
in  them.  Railway  defaults  have  multiplied  beyond  all 
precedent,  and  the  stockholders  of  these  corporations 
have  been  pinched  as  they  never  were  before.  Our 
lake  and  river  and  coastwise  carrying  trades  are  in  no 
better  plight.  The  same  distress  prevails  in  the  woolen 
trade,  the  lumber  trade,  the  building  trades,  and  the 
lesser  branches  of  manufacturing  industry.  There  has 
been  a  gigantic  revolt  of  laboring  men  in  the  Middle 
and  Western  States,  accompanied  by  bloodshed,  pillage, 
and  incendiarism,  and  the  tramp,  who  was  known  five 
years  ago  only  as  a  phenomenon  of  distant  lands,  like 
the   gypsy  and    the  brigand,   has   become  one  of  the 


4  THE    TARIFF  QUESTION. 

most  dreaded  institutions  of  the  country.  Real  estate 
in  cities  and  towns  has  fallen  in  price  to  such  an  extent 
that  mortgages  of  five  years'  duration  most  commonly 
take  the  whole  property  and  leave  the  mortgagor  in 
debt.  The  invariable  concomitant  of  this  state  of 
things  is  an  extremely  low  rate  of  interest  for  money. 
One  and  a  half  and  two  per  cent,  has  frequently  been 
the  highest  rate  obtainable  on  call  loans  in  the  city 
of  New  York,  while  mercantile  paper  has  ranged  con- 
siderably under  six,  and  lately  the  spectacle  was  pre- 
sented to  us  of  a  Government  loan  being  effected  in  our 
own  midst  at  four  per  cent,  to  the  extent  of  $68,000,- 
000,  after  a  few  days'  advertising  in  the  newspapers. 
Such  a  plethora  and  surplus  of  unused  capital  was  never 
before  dreamed  of  on  this  virgin  continent,  so  called. 
Agriculture  and  the  trades  most  closely  connected  with 
it,  are  perhaps  receiving  fair  returns  for  the  capital  and 
skill  invested  in  them.  These,  and  sundry  branches  of 
the  export  trade,  are  the  only  features  in  the  dark  land- 
scape of  our  industry  upon  which  the  eye  rests  with 
any  satisfaction.  All  else  is  a  weary  and  aching  mass 
of  unemployed  or  half  employed  capital,  misdirected 
talent,  and  underpaid  labor,  to  which  commerce  gives 
the  generic  name  of  glut.  After  two  centuries  and  a 
half  of  continuous  immigration  from  foreign  lands, 
even  that  source  of  gain  has  failed  us,  and  some  hun- 
dreds of  our  own  more  enterprising  artisans  have  mi- 
grated within  a  year  to  Australia  and  the  British  islands, 
in    search    of   employment.     The    condition    of  things 


THE    TARIFF  QUESTION.  5 

abroad  is  akin  to  our  own.  The  crisis  which  com- 
menced in  1873,  after  a  long  period  of  reckless  specula- 
tion and  inflated  prices,  visited  England,  Germany,  and 
the  Austro-Iiungarian  empire  with  severe  distress,  and 
has  finally  gnawed  its  way  into  France.  The  lattei 
country,  fortified  by  the  careful,  hoarding,  non-specula- 
tive habits  of  her  people,  seemed  for  a  season  to  have 
escaped  entirely  from  a  tornado  which  ravaged  the 
greater  part  of  the  commercial  world.  But  with  the 
gradual  impoverishment  of  her  customers  she  has  been 
restricted  to  a  narrower  market  for  her  products,  and 
compelled  to  accept  lower  prices  for  the  diminished 
quantity.  Hence  we  hear  complaints  from  nearly  all 
parts  of  that  usually  prosperous  land.  Neither  Eng. 
land  nor  Germany  has  given  any  considerable  signs  of  a 
revival  of  trade,  yet  I  judge  from  some  personal  obser- 
vation, and  from  the  statements  of  trade  journals  on 
both  sides  of  the  water,  that  whatever  may  be  the 
nominal  rate  of  wages  there  and  here,  there  are  more 
people  out  of  employment  in  this  country,  who  are 
willing  to  work,  than  in  England  and  Germany  added 
together.  At  all  events,  we  have  lost  our  distinction 
among  nations  as  the  country  in  which  there  is  work 
and  bread  for  all. 


I. 

Let  us  first  take  a  brief  survey  of  the  commercial 
crisis  in  which  we  have  been  wallowing  since  1873.    Al- 


6  THE    TARIFF  QUESTION. 

though  much  has  been  written  on  the  subject  of  com- 
mercial crises,  and  their  history  has  been  carefully  col- 
lated by  English,  French,  and  German  publicists,  there 
is  perhaps  no  department  of  political  economy  so  ob- 
scure and  so  little  understood.  Why  is  it  that  for  some 
years  the  whole  commercial  world  is  in  a  state  of  bound- 
ing prosperity,  and  then  suddenly  plunges  into  an  abyss 
of  bankruptcy,  poverty,  and  distress,  without  any  per- 
ceptible external  cause?  It  is  commonly  supposed,  and 
is  maintained  by  some  economists  of  note,  that  waste 
of  capital,  such  as  bad  investments  in  railways,  public 
improvements,  wars,  etc.,  are  the  responsible  and  true 
cause  of  the  periodical  collapse  of  trade  and  industry. 
These  are,  indeed,  the  usual  forerunners  and  accompani- 
ments of  the  commercial  crisis,  but  they  cannot  be  the 
cause.  A  country  cannot  invest  more  than  its  annual 
surplus  in  new  railways,  factories,  mines,  buildings,  etc., 
nor  can  it  spend  more  than  its  annual  surplus  in  war. 
By  annual  surplus  is  meant  that  part  of  the  annual  pro- 
duction which  remains  after  feeding,  clothing,  and  main- 
taining all  the  inhabitants.  True,  something  may  be 
Ijorrowed  from  abroad  for  such  investments,  but  the 
borrowed  portion  is  really  an  investment  of  the  lending 
country.  Commercial  crises  make  no  distinction  be- 
tween borrowing  countries  and  lending  countries.  In- 
deed, they  strike  the  lending  countries  oftenest,  but 
they  strike  both  impartially.  I  think  it  must  be  ad- 
mitted as  mathematically  true  that  a  country  cannot 
possibly  invest  in  fixed  capital,  such  as  new  railways,  or 


THE    TARIFF  QUESTION.  7 

waste  in  war,  or  in  any  manner  whatsoever,  more  than 
it  produces  annually  over  and  above  its  annual  con- 
sumption. But  if  the  country  should  deliberately  sink 
its  annual  surplus  in  the  sea,  such  a  proceeding  would 
have  no  tendency  to  bring  on  a  crisis.  It  would  merely 
leave  the  country  at  the  end  of  the  year  where  it  was 
at  the  beginning.  It  would  be  neither  richer  nor  poorer, 
nor  would  there  be  anything  in  the  transaction  to  cause 
banks  to  suspend,  and  merchants  to  fail,  and  factories 
to  close  their  doors.  If,  in  addition  to  its  own  surplus, 
it  should  throw  into  the  sea  a  stated  amount  of  prop- 
erty borrowed  from  some  other  country,  the  case  would 
be  scarcely  different.  The  lending  country  would  lose 
what  it  had  contributed,  and  so  far  as  it  had  based  its 
future  business  arrangements  on  a  return  of  the  prop- 
erty loaned,  it  would  have  planted  the  seeds  of  a  com- 
mercial crisis  in  its  own  midst ;  but  no  such  effect  would 
be  produced  in  the  borrowing  country,  since  no  expec- 
tations could  grow  out  of  property  deliberately  de- 
stroyed, and  no  liabilities  could  be  created  upon  it  be- 
yond the  immediate  and  sole  liability  of  the  individual 
borrowers  to  the  individual  lenders.  But  if  the  absolute 
sinking  and  destruction  of  our  surplus  capital  would 
have  no  tendency  to  bring  on  a  crisis,  a  fortiori  the 
more  or  less  bad  and  unprofitable  investment  of  such 
capital  would  not,  taken  by  itself,  produce  such  result. 

But  if  badly  invested  capital  or  wasted  and  sunken 
capital  is  treated  in  the  imaginations  of  men  as  having 
been  well  invested,  as  being  saved  and  as  available  to 


8  THE    TARIFF  QUESTION. 

meet  future  engagements,  so  that  debts  are  contracted 
upon  the  basis  of  what  does  not  in  fact  exist,  we  have 
one  of  the  principal  ingredients  of  the  modern  commer- 
cial crisis.  There  have  been  crises  of  great  severity  in 
countries  where  there  had  been  no  loss  of  capital  in  the 
aggregate  either  by  bad  investments  or  by  the  waste  of 
war,  but  merely  a  temporary  craze  pervading  society, 
and  causing  people  to  put  exaggerated  and  fanciful 
values  upon  things,  and  to  make  contracts  payable  in 
dollars  or  pounds  sterling,  with  none  but  imaginary 
assets.  The  South  Sea  bubble,  so  called  in  England,  the 
Mississippi  bubble  in  France,  and  the  tulip  mania  of 
Holland,  were  of  this  nature,  consisting  in  a  general 
agreement  among  people  to  consider  things  worth  thou- 
sands of  pounds,  or  francs,  that  were  worth  only  hun- 
dreds, or  nothing  at  all.  Pounds  and  francs,  however, 
are  invariable  quantities,  and  after  the  madness  has  run 
a  certain  course,  and  the  variable  quantities — the  Mis- 
sissippi stock,  the  South  Sea  stock,  and  the  tulip  bulbs — 
come  to  be  soberly  compared  with  the  pounds  and 
francs,  bankruptcy  and  ruin  stalk  through  the  market 
places.  False  estimates  of  the  worth  of  things,  as  meas- 
ured by  money,  are  part  and  parcel  of  commercial 
crises,  so  that  we  may  safely  set  it  down  as  one  of  the 
causes  of  our  present  condition,  that  for  some  years 
prior  to  1873  we  had  been  marking  up  our  property  of 
various  kinds,  and  agreeing  to  pay  dollars  when  we 
really  had  only  half  dollars  to  pay  with.  We  had 
created  a  great  many  needless  railways,  and  other  per- 


THE    TARIFF  QUESTION.  9 

manent  improvements,  it  is  true,  but  the  difficulty  was 
not  that  we  had  built  them,  but  that  we  considered 
them  worth  as  many  dollars  as  they  cost,  and  had 
entered  into  obligations  based  upon  that  mistaken 
notion.  The  productive  powers  of  the  country  were 
then  and  are  now  equal  to  the  task  of  creating  all  those 
improvements,  without  diminishing  the  volume  of  cir- 
culating capital  or  draining  its  source  of  supply,  and 
therefore  without  cramping  trade. 

What  should  have  caused  us  to  commence  marking 
up  prices  during  a  long  period  prior  to  1873  would  be 
an  interesting  inquiry,  but  the  only  answer  I  can  give 
here  is  that  certain  races  of  men,  and  particularly  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race,  are  extremely  sanguine  in  the  com- 
mercial sense,  and  much  given  to  speculation  and  to 
doing  business  on  credit.  We  know  for  a  fact  that 
they  oscillate  between  periods  of  high  prosperity  and 
extreme  depression  with  a  sort  of  mechanical  regularity. 
They  seem  to  accumulate  wealth  very  rapidly  for  a  sea- 
son, and  then  they  find  themselves  entangled  in  debts 
which  they  cannot  pay.  The  sponge  of  bankruptcy  is 
slowly  and  painfully  applied  to  the  mercantile  and  man- 
ufacturing classes,  and  then,  after  more  or  less  suf- 
fering, they  take  a  new  start  for  a  fresh  plunge.  I  do 
not  think  that  either  the  tariff  or  the  currency,  vicious 
as  they  are,  brought  on  the  present  crisis,  because  we 
have  had  similar  crises  when  neither  the  tariff  nor  the 
currency  was  faulty ;  and  other  countries  enjoying  both 
free  trade  and  metallic  money,  are  now  in  substantially 
I* 


lO  THE    TARIFF  QUESTION. 

the  same  plight  as  ourselves.  These  commercial  phe- 
nomena must  be  studied  inductively  by  finding  what 
particular  facts  are  common  to  them  in  all  times  and 
places.  Tariffs  and  currencies  are  not  common  to 
them  every  where.  Therefore  all  we  can  say  is  that  a 
bad  tariff  and  a  bad  currency  probably  aggravate  a 
crisis  when  it  comes,  and  may  hasten  its  coming.  We 
know  that  a  good  tariff  and  a  good  currency  will  not 
prevent  its  comJng.  It  is  small  satisfaction  to  recall 
that  the  advocates  of  protection  trumpeted  the  present 
tariff  as  the  infallible  preventive  and  patent  medicine 
of  panics  and  financial  revulsions.  Nobody  has  the 
hardihood  to  claim  that  the  present  crisis  was  brought 
on  by  the  want  of  a  tariff  sufficiently  high  for  the  pub- 
lic needs.  While  the  framers  and  friends  of  the  pres- 
ent tariff,  in  so  far  as  they  claimed  for  it  any  virtue  in 
warding  off  panics  and  crises,  are  convicted  before  the 
whole  people  of  gross  quackery,  I  do  not  charge  upon 
them  the  responsibility  of  bringing  us  into  our  pres- 
ent misery ;  I  shall  endeavor  to  show,  however,  that 
the  speediest,  if  not  the  only  way  out  of  it,  is  to  aban- 
don their  policy,  to  strike  off  the  shackles  they  have 
imposed  upon  commerce,  to  open  the  door,  and  give  to 
the  unparalleled  resources  and  the  unsurpassed  skill  of 
this  country  a  fair  chance  in  the  markets  of  the  world, 


THE    TARIFF  QUESTION.  II 


II. 

The  next  point  to  be  considered  is  the  reason,  if  we 
can  discover  it,  why  the  present  crisis  holds  on  so  long ; 
why  the  depression  deepens  and  increases  instead  of 
wearing  itself  out,  as  previous  ones  have  done.  It  is 
now  four  years  since  pay  day  commenced,  and  since  so 
vast  a  multitude  were  found  unable  to  pay.  The  bank- 
ruptcy courts  have  been  grinding  six  days  in  every  week 
since  September,  1873,  and  the  grist  is  scarcely  dimin- 
ished in  volume.  Less  than  three  years  sufficed  to  clear 
away  the  wrecks  of  1857,  ^^^^  to  bring  in  a  season  of 
fair  prosperity.  The  difference,  I  apprehend,  consists 
in  this,  that  in  1857  ^^^  still  had  a  vast  undeveloped 
country  to  employ  our  surplus  capital  and  labor,  and 
likewise  a  very  considerable  market  for  our  manufactures 
abroad.  At  that  time  the  Mississippi  river  was  the 
western  limit,  not  of  settlement  indeed,  but  of  anything 
that  could  be  called  thorough  cultivation  and  improve- 
ment, while  east  of  that  line  there  were  great  gaps  in 
Illinois,  Michigan,  and  Wisconsin,  and  lesser  ones  in 
Indiana,  Ohio,  and  Pennsylvania  to  be  filled  up,  and  as 
the  saying  is,  "  developed,"  by  population,  by  railways, 
and  all  the  machinery  of  civilized  life.  Here  and  further 
westward  was  to  be  found  remuneration  for  capital  and 
labor,  and  both  came  in  abundance  as  soon  as  the  debris 
of  1857  was  gotten  out  of  the  way.  Since  that  time  we 
have  pushed  settlement  to  the  interior  of  Kansas  and 


12  THE    TARIFF  QUESTION. 

Nebraska.  Minnesota  and  Iowa  have  become  populous 
States.  Colorado  has  become  a  thrifty  community. 
The  continent  has  been  opened  by  railways.  California 
is,  or  claims  to  be.  overcrowded  with  laborers.  There  are 
still  many  gaps  to  be  filled,  and  perhaps  the  boundary 
from  which  agricultural  products  can  be  carried  with 
profit  to  the  seaboard  has  not  been  overpassed.  But 
the  conditions  favorable  to  rapid  recovery  in  1857  no 
longer  exist.  Remuneration  for  capital  and  labor  on 
our  own  soil  no  longer  abounds  in  the  full  measure  of 
former  epochs,  and  although  we  cannot  claim  a  dense 
population,  it  would  seem  to  be  as  dense  as  we  can  find 
any  present  employment  for.  Expansion  is  one  of  the 
necessities  of  healthy  trade,  and  is  peculiarly  the  present 
necessity  of  American  trade.  And  since  it  is  not  to  be 
found  in  any  sufficient  measure  on  our  own  soil,  we  must 
look  to  the  outer  world  for  it. 

When  the  question  is  asked,  Why  does  not  business 
revive  ?  it  is  an  adequate  and  perfectly  scientific  answer 
to  say  that  our  commerce  is  confined  within  limits  too 
small  for  its  healthy  action.  Those  departments  of  in- 
dustry which  have  access  to  foreign  markets  are  fairly 
remunerative  and  prosperous.  All  others  are  endeavor- 
ing to  find  sustenance  and  support  within  the  narrow 
confines  of  our  own  population,  and  are  perishing  like 
rats  in  a  cage,  where  there  is  full  liberty  to  increase  and 
multiply,  but  where  only  a  fixed  quantity  of  corn  is  sup- 
plied each  day.  This  figure  of  speech,  so  effectively 
used  by  Perronet  Thompson  in  the  time  of  the  Anti- 


THE    TARIFF  QUESTION.  1 3 

Corn  Law  League,  is  well  descriptive  of  the  condition 
of  American  manufacturing  industry  to-day  under  the 
fostering  care  of  the  protectionists.  Mr.  Edward  At- 
kinson has  shown,  in  an  admirable  series  of  papers,  how 
the  tariff  has  operated  to  cripple  our  export  trade  in 
cotton  goods,  and  Mr.  David  A.  Wells  has  given  repeated 
and  forcible  illustrations  of  its  crushing  effect  upon  other 
departments  of  manufacturing  industry.  The  statisti- 
cian of  the  New  York  custom  house,  Mr.  J.  S.  Moore, 
has  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  our  yearly  manu- 
facturing product  had  risen  from  $57.25-100  per  capita 
in  i860  to  $11 1  per  capita  in  1870.  That  the  consuming 
capacity  of  the  country  has  risen  in  no  such  ratio  is 
proved  by  the  deathlike  silence  of  two-thirds  of  our  iron 
furnaces,  by  the  moribund  state  of  our  woolen  industry, 
by  the  break-down  of  our  coal  companies,  by  the  dis- 
tress of  nearly  all  classes  of  operatives,  and  by  the  ac- 
tivity of  the  sheriff  and  auctioneer  in  all  our  manufac- 
turing centres.  That  the  country  was  able  to  use  man- 
ufactured goods  to  the  amount  of  $iii  per  capita  in 
1870  is  true,  but  it  was  not  able  to  pay  for  them,  and 
when  the  dispensation  of  credit  came  to  an  end,  and  the 
tide  of  surplus  rolled  back  upon  the  producers,  they 
were  smothered  in  their  own  honey. 

I  hold  it  to  be  too  well  established  for  argument  that 
the  manufacturing  capacity  of  this  country,  especially  in 
the  iron,  woolen,  and  cotton  trades,  is  far  in  excess  of 
our  domestic  needs,  and  that  a  market  must  be  found 
abroad  for  the  overplus,  or  else  the  existing  paralysis 


14  THE    TARIFF  QUESTION. 

and  misery  will  continue  indefinitely.  Just  now  we  are 
told  that  large  crops  are  being  harvested  in  the  West, 
and  that  when  they  come  forward  we  shall  have  better 
times.  Large  crops  in  the  West,  if  fair  prices  are  ob- 
tained, will  be  good  for  the  west — good  for  the  produ- 
cers, the  carriers,  and  the  dealers — and  will  enable  them 
to  increase  their  purchases  of  manufactured  goods  to 
some  extent  if  they  choose  to  do  so  ;  but  since  the  con- 
dition of  the  agricultural  classes  of  the  west  has  not  been 
markedly  distressing  during  the  last  three  or  four  years, 
I  do  not  anticipate  any  notable  increase  of  purchases  in 
that  quarter,  however  favorable  the  harvest  may  be,  or 
however  steady  the  foreign  demand  for  our  breadstufifs. 
That  our  real  and  pressing  need  is  access  to  the  markets 
of  the  great  world  is  recognized  by  an  increasing  number 
of  those  who  are  classed  as  protectionists.  The  demand 
for  such  an  outlet  is  met  with  in  the  press  almost  daily, 
and  is  not  infrequently  echoed  by  our  statesmen.  Not 
long  since  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives addressed  a  letter  to  certain  citizens  of  Galveston, 
Texas,  directing  their  attention  to  the  recondite  fact 
that  while  the  countries  south  of  us  on  the  American 
continent  have  a  foreign  trade  amounting  to  $520,000,- 
000,  only  $112,000,000  of  it  comes  to  the  United  States, 
and  of  this  fraction  only  $37,000,000  is  carried  in  Ameri- 
can vessels.  Mr.  Randall  considers  this  fact  discredita- 
ble to  our  enlightenment,  and  so  far  I  agree  with  him. 

The  same  subject  has  been  treated  in  a  more  elabo- 
rate manner  by  the  Secretary  of  State  in  an  "  interview  " 


THE    TARIFF  QUESTION.  1 5 

published  in  the  Philadelphia  "  Press."  The  Secretary 
observes  that  of  our  714  iron  furnaces,  478  are  out  of 
blast,  representing  an  idle  capital  of  $100,000,000.  The 
pressing  need  of  the  country,  he  says,  is  a  foreign  market 
for  the  surplus  products  of  our  manufactories.  But  he 
adds  that  "  what  \ve  want  is  not  protection  or  free  trade, 
but  full  trade."  Since  any  ideas  put  forth  by  so  emi- 
nent a  logician  as  Mr.  Evarts  will  be  spread  far  and  wide, 
it  becomes  necessary  to  note  the  distinction  he  draws 
between  free  trade  and  full  trade.  The  latter  he  con- 
siders wholesome,  but  the  former  pernicious.  Now,  in 
the  domain  of  commerce  protection  and  restriction  are 
interchangeable  terms,  meaning  exactly  the  same  thing, 
while  free  trade  signifies  the  opposite.  Consequently 
the  idea  which  the  Secretary  has  clothed  in  such  politic 
phraseology  is  that  what  we  want  is  not  trade  without 
shackles,  but  plenty  of  trade  with  plenty  of  shackles. 
What  we  want  in  a  swift  runner  is  not  freedom  of  limbs, 
but  a  high  rate  of  speed  with  his  feet  in  a  sack.  Alas, 
Mr.  Evarts,  the  conditions  of  full  trade  are  those  of  free 
trade — the  freer  the  fuller,  and  the  fuller  the  freer.  You 
can  have  a  little  more  foreign  trade  by  taking  off  a  few 
restrictions,  and  you  can  have  much  more  by  taking  off 
many  restrictions. 

The  Secretary  proceeds  to  say  that  he  will  instruct 
our  diplomatic  and  consular  officers  to  inquire  into  the 
wants  of  foreign  countries,  with  a  view  to  the  develop- 
ment of  a  market  for  American  products,  and  that  he 
hopes  to  do  something  useful  through  trade  conventions. 


1 6  THE    TARIFF  QUESTION. 

Let  us  thankfully  accept  any  information  coming  through 
consuls  and  ministers  which  has  escaped  the  notice  of 
merchants,  and  which  may  lead  to  the  opening  of  new 
markets,  but  let  us  not  depend  upon  it  for  speedy  re- 
lief. Trade  conventions,  otherwise  called  reciprocity 
treaties,  are  doses  of  free  trade  taken  here  and  there, 
and  are  supposed  to  be  consistent  with  very  pronounced 
views  on  the  subject  of  protection.  If  I  understand  the 
views  and  feelings  of  free-traders  in  this  country,  they 
are  not  disposed  to  quarrel  with  anybody  as  to  phrases 
and  the  names  of  things,  nor  to  fight  over  again  the 
battles  of  the  past.  While  preferring  free  trade  on  the 
large  scale,  they  are  willing  to  take  it  in  parcels,  pro- 
vided public  rather  than  private  interests  are  consulted 
in  the  adjustment.  I  took  pains  a  few  years  ago  to 
visit  Washington  and  spend  sometime  in  the  vain  effort 
to  secure  the  ratification  of  a  reciprocity  treaty  with 
Canada,  which,  while  advantageous  to  the  United  States 
and  therefore  deserving  of  adoption  independently  of 
any  other  fact,  would  have  been  accepted  by  Canada  in 
lieu  of  all  claims  for  fishing  privileges  under  the  treaty 
of  Washington.  I  mention  this  by  way  of  notifying 
gentlemen  of  the  protectionist  bias,  that  I  have  no  op- 
position to  offer  to  trade  conventions  per  se.  A  reci- 
procity treaty  was  concluded  with  the  Hawaiian  Islands 
last  year,  where  public  revenue  was  sacrificed  to  private 
gain  in  a  most  objectionable  manner,  showing  how  im- 
portant it  is  that  legislation  on  the  subject  of  trade 
should  receive  its  first  consideration  in  the  presence  of 


THE    TARIFF  QUESTION.  1 7 

the  people,  rather  than  in  the  private  correspondence  of 
the  Executive,  and  the  secret  sessions  of  the  Senate. 
But  free  trade  has  no  objections  to  offer  to  commercial 
treaties  in  the  abstract ;  on  the  contrary,  welcomes  them 
as  tentative  steps  to  a  treaty  with  the  whole  family  of 
man. 


III. 


In  what  way  will  our  foreign  trade  be  promoted  by 
striking  off  or  lowering  protective  duties?  How  are 
markets  to  be  found  abroad  for  the  surplus  of  our  manu- 
factories by  overhauling  the  tariff?  Since  a  protecting 
duty  is  an  obstacle  to  foreign  trade,  and  has  no  other 
design  or  purpose,  the  repeal  of  it  is  the  removal  of  an 
impediment  like  the  dredging  of  a  sand  bar  which  stops 
up  the  harbor.  Then  if  there  be  any  commerce  in  the 
wide  world  desiring  to  come  in,  it  can  come,  and  if  there 
be  none,  nobody  is  harmed.  If  any  comes  in,  something 
will  necessarily  go  out  to  pay  for  it,  and  since  the  for- 
eign country  will  not  take  greenbacks,  it  must  neces- 
sarily take  the  products  of  our  industry.  There  is  no 
danger  of  foreign  countries  taking  more  of  our  railroad 
bonds  in  exchange  for  their  goods,  nor  with  money  at 
four  per  cent,  interest  at  home,  is  there  likely  to  be  any 
further  large  export  of  our  national  securities.  Conse- 
quently whatever  we  buy  from  abroad  we  must  pay  for 
with  our  products,  our  industry,  our  employment.  All 
this  is  simple  enough.     It  is  equivalent  to  saying  that 


1 8  THE    TARIFF  QUESTION. 

where  you  buy  you  must  also  sell.  The  converse  is 
equally  true,  that  where  you  would  sell,  there  you  must 
also  buy.  If  you  would  sell  largely  to  South  America, 
you  must  buy  largely  from  her.  The  buying  will  push 
on  the  selling,  and  the  selling  the  buying.  If  you  would 
sell  largely  to  the  world,  you  must  buy  largely  from  the 
world.  There  is  no  mystery  here.  It  is  all  the  ABC 
of  commerce. 

As  to  manufactures  in  particular,  or  rather  that  class 
of  manufactures  which  are  non-exportable  by  reason  of 
their  cost,  it  is  to  be  observed  that  protection,  which 
usually  begins  by  imposing  duties  on  a  few  articles  just 
to  give  them  a  start,  always  enlarges  its  sphere  and  takes 
in  other  articles,  till  presently  the  advantage  intended  to 
be  given  to  the  first  recipients  is  neutralized,  or  perhaps 
more  than  neutralized,  by  duties  on  their  tools  and  ma- 
terials. Parasites  fasten  upon  them,  and  smaller  ones 
upon  these,  according  to  the  well-known  ditty,  ad  infini- 
ttim.  The  woolen  manufacturer  asks  for  his  little  bounty 
and  gets  it ;  then  the  wool  grower  asks  for  his  ;  and  then 
the  maker  of  looms  and  spindles  asks  for  his;  and  then 
the  compounder  of  dye  stuffs  and  chemicals  asks  for  his  ; 
and  then  the  lumberman,  the  nail  maker,  the  coal  miner, 
the  glass  blower,  the  soap  boiler,  and  a  whole  battalion 
of  tramps  come  along,  begging  for  broken  victuals  at  the 
expense,  more  or  less,  of  the  woolen  manufacturer.  No 
wonder  he  grows  haggard  year  by  year,  and  finally 
reaches  the  state  of  imbecility  where  he  and  his  tor- 
mentors come  together  and  vow  that  they  will  never 


THE    TARIFF  QUESTION.  1 9 

abandon  each  other  or  the  system  whereby  they  have 
collectively  turned  out  so  much  pauper  labor,  and  lost 
so  much  money.  He  sees  the  British  manufacturer  get- 
ting his  wool,  his  machinery,  his  dye  stuffs  and  chemi- 
cals, and  everything  else  free  of  duty,  and  pouring  into 
the  United  States  no  inconsiderable  quantity  of  woolen 
goods  over  the  top  of  a  seventy  per  cent,  duty.  With 
this  frightful  spectacle  before  him,  he  says  to  his  fellow 
members  at  their  annual  meeting:  "We  are  almost 
starved  to  death  now  :  what  would  become  of  us  with- 
out the  tariff?  "  Substantially  the  same  is  the  coward 
ejaculation  of  all  the  protected  classes,  although  a  few, 
the  manufacturing  chemists  for  instance — the  quinine, 
calomel,  and  castor  oil  convention — have  expressed  their 
willingness  to  cease  taxing  the  sick  if  other  trades  will 
cease  taxing  the  chemists.  They  will  consent  to  a  light- 
ening of  burdens  all  around,  but  not  to  a  special  exemp- 
tion of  invalids.  I  agree  with  them  in  the  hope  that  the 
relief  may  extend  to  crippled  industries  as  well  as  to  the 
patients  in  our  hospitals  and  sick  rooms. 

Now  I  make  the  broad  assertion  that  this  country  is 
too  large  for  protection.  Whatever  it  may  have  been 
in  times  past — and  while  cherishing  my  own  views  in 
that  behalf,  I  shall  not  seek  to  prolong  or  embitter  the 
controversy  by  holding  out  any  red  flag  to  those  who 
consider  our  manufacturing  development  due  to  the 
protective  system — we  have  now  too  much  capital,  too 
much  skill,  too  great  natural  resources,  too  much  labor, 
and  too  many  idle  furnaces  and  factories,  to  furnish  the 


20  THE    TARIFF  QUESTION. 

basis  for  the  longer  continuance  of  this  system  In  the 
matter  of  coal,  which  is  the  principal  factor  of  both 
manufacturing  and  maritime  power,  we  stand  toward 
Great  Britain  in  the  ratio  of  37  to  i.  That  is  to  say, 
we  have,  according  to  the  careful  computations  of  Pro- 
fessor Rogers,  thirty-seven  times  as  much  of  this  pow- 
erful and  indispensable  ingredient  of  manufacturing 
prosperity  available  to  our  purposes  as  England  has. 
The  facilities  for  mining  and  delivering  coal  exist  here 
in  as  great  perfection  as  in  any  other  country,  and  the 
price  of  coal  is  lower  in  New  York  than  in  London, 
lower  in  Philadelphia  than  in  Manchester,  lower  in 
Pittsburgh  than  in  Sheffield.  The  ores  of  iron,  which 
may  be  called  the  next  great  element  of  manufacturing 
and  maritime  strength,  are  found  here  in  such  bound- 
less profusion  and  variety,  and  so  admiraVjly  situated 
with  reference  to  smelting,  that  the  producer  is  puz 
zled  by  the  very  abundance  of  the  advantages  offered 
to  him.  Our  food-producing  powers  are  so  much 
greater  than  those  of  our  competitors  that  our  grain 
and  meat  will  bear  twelve  hundred  miles  of  inland 
transportation  and  handling,  and  three  thousand  miles 
of  water  carriage,  and  still  leave  a  profit  to  the  grower. 
As  regards  cotton,  timber,  petroleum,  salt,  copper, 
zinc,  naval  stores,  and  the  precious  metals,  what  coun- 
try, or  what  section  of  the  earth's  surface,  furnishes  so 
profuse  a  display  ?  It  would  not  be  far  out  of  the  way 
to  say  that  the  United  States  of  America  contain 
greater  natural  resources  available  to  the  hand  of  man 


THE    TARIFF  QUESTION.  21 

than  all  Europe  combined.  What  gorgon  is  it  then 
that  forbids  us  to  compete  boldly  with  Europe  as  a 
manufacturing  power,  not  only  in  our  own  markets,  but 
in  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe  ? 

Perhaps  I  shall  hear  some  voice  piping,  from  long 
force  of  habit,  the  abused  words,  "  pauper  labor  of 
Europe."  Well,  our  resources  in  the  way  of  pauper 
labor  are  quite  equal  to  our  other  resources,  I  think, 
and  no  whit  inferior  to  those  of  England.  I  have  not 
taken  the  trouble  to  inquire  into  the  nominal  rates  of 
wages  in  the  two  countries,  because  such  inquiries  lead 
to  no  satisfaction.  The  cost  of  living,  the  efficiency  of 
the  labor  performed,  and  the  nearness  of  markets,  are 
all  elements  to  be  taken  into  account  in  determining 
what  wages  the  manufacturer  can  pay,  or  the  laborer 
exact.  But  on  the  score  of  pauper  labor  I  am  sure  no 
great  manufacturing  country  can  claim  much  preemi- 
nence over  us  at  the  present  time,  and  I  dismiss  the 
argument  drawn  from  the  ''  pauper  labor  of  Europe  " 
as  too  pitiful  to  be  dealt  with  except  in  the  way  of 
sarcasm,  and  too  painful  even  for  that. 

Nor  can  anybody  affirm  that  we  are  at  any  disad- 
vantage as  regards  accumulated  capital,  with  $100,000,- 
000  of  capital  lying  dead  in  iron  furnaces  alone.  Surely 
no  capital  can  be  cheaper  than  that,  since  the  cost  of 
lighting  the  fires  is  the  only  expenditure  needed  to  set 
up  the  business.  With  money  at  four  per  cent,  interest 
on  Government  loans,  and  four  and  a  half  to  six  on  mer- 
cantile paper,  it  is  safe  to  assume  that  it  is   not  want 


22  THE    TARIFF  QUESTION. 

of  capital  that  stands  in  our  way.  But  the  plethora  of 
idle  capital,  it  may  be  argued,  so  unusual,  so  unheard 
of  in  this  country,  must  be  a  temporary  circumstance. 
I  hope  so  indeed,  and  in  order  that  it  may  be  so  I  insist 
that  markets  must  be  found  for  its  employment  out- 
side the  forty  millions  of  our  own  people,  and  among 
the  thousand  millions  of  the  habitable  globe. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  we  lack  manufacturing  skill, 
and  that  the  clumsiness  of  our  artisans  must  be  supple- 
mented and  offset  by  protecting  duties.  The  testimony 
of  foreign  commissions,  judges,  and  experts  at  the  Phil- 
adelphia Exposition  is  nearly  unanimous  in  praise  of  the 
dexterity,  ingenuity,  versatility,  and  economy  of  our 
exhibitors.  The  inventive  genius  of  our  people  is  pro- 
verbial, and  it  may  safely  be  said  that  no  country  is 
doing  more  to  enslave  the  elements  and  bid  the  forces 
of  nature  toil  for  man  than  ours.  "  It  would  be  fool- 
ish," says  the  report  of  the  British  Commissioner,  "  not 
to  recognize  the  fact  that  at  Philadelphia,  Great  Britain 
was  in  the  face  of  Jicr  most  poivcrful  rival  in  manufac- 
tures.'' 

The  report  of  the  Swiss  Commissioner  is  in  the  na- 
ture of  a  lament  over  the  superiority  of  our  artisans, 
our  machinery,  our  methods,  as  compared  with  those 
of  his  own  countrymen.  I  venture  to  add  that  no 
American  came  away  from  that  stupendous  museum 
of  industry  with  the  fear  that  any  other  nation  sur- 
passes us  in  manufacturing  skill,  either  native  or  ac- 
quired. 


THE    TARIFF  QUESTION.  2$ 


IV. 


If,  then,  we  have  the  natural  resources,  the  capital, 
and  the  skill,  together  with  an  over-supply  of  cheap  la- 
bor, what  is  it  that  prevents  us  from  entering  into  com- 
petition as  manufacturers  with  England  and  western 
Europe  in  any  market  whatsoever  ?  Why  do  we  not 
remove  the  self-created  impediment  to  foreign  commerce, 
misnamed  protection  ?  It  is  only  a  vote  in  Congress 
that  is  needed  to  remove  it.  This  is  all  that  is  required 
to  dredge  the  legal  sand  bars  out  of  all  our  harbors. 
Not  a  dollar  of  money  is  wanted  from  the  national 
treasury,  or  elsewhere.  On  the  contrary,  much  money 
might  be  saved  by  dispensing  with  protection.  Why 
do  we  not  sweep  it  off  the  statute-book,  or  at  all  events 
commence  paring  it  down,  with  a  view  to  a  tariff  for 
revenue  only  ?  Many  months  ago  I  ventured  the  opin- 
ion* that  freedom  of  trade  was  one  of  the  main  condi- 
tions of  a  revival  of  business  in  the  United  States.  I 
now  go  further,  and  say  that  it  is  the  condition  sine  qua 
non — the  indispensable  necessity,  in  comparison  with 
which  all  the  currency  panaceas  going,  metallic  and 
non-metallic,  are  quack  medicines  and  nostrums.  No- 
body can  deprecate  more  earnestly  than  myself  the  evils 
of  an  irredeemable  currency,  but  for  reasons  already 
stated,  I  do  not  think  that  the  currency  either  brought 
on  the  crisis  or  keeps  it  on.     The  worst  evil  of  an  irre- 

*  In  the  "  Fortnightly  Review,"  June,  1876. 


M  THE    TARIFF  QUESTION. 

deemable  currency  is  the  ever-present  fear  that  it  may 
be  arbitrarily  increased  in  volume — that  the  blind  Cy- 
clops of  popular  ignorance  may  in  his  anguish  force  an 
squally  blind  Congress  to  multiply  bits  of  paper  upon 
us,  under  the  delusion  that  the  country  will  then  be  able 
to  consume  more  coal,  and  iron,  and  cloth,  and  hence  to 
pay  better  wages  than  before.  I  hold  it  to  be  likewise 
a  delusion,  though  a  harmless  one,  to  suppose  that  alter- 
ing our  medium  of  exchange  from  paper  to  coin  will  in- 
crease the  quantities  of  things  exchanged.  We  are 
exhorted  to  believe  that  it  will  restore  confidence,  and 
induce  capitalists  to  embark  in  new  enterprises.  New 
enterprises  mean,  of  course,  new  or  further  production 
of  things  to  be  sold,  used,  and  consumed.  ]3ut  it  hap- 
pens that  capitalists  are  already  producing  more  of  these 
things  than  can  be  sold,  used,  or  consumed,  and  when 
any  new  demand  springs  up  capital  makes  small  diffi- 
culty of  supplying  it  on  account  of  the  currency.  It  is 
most  desirable  on  other  grounds  that  coin  payments 
should  be  restored,  but  the  expectation  which  so  many 
indulge  that  specie  resumption  will  charm  away  these 
hard  times,  is  not  well  founded. 

The  reason  why  we  do  not  abandon  the  doctrine 
of  protection  is  probably  explained  by  a  national  trait, 
which  the  latest  foreign  commentator  on  our  character 
and  institutions  has  pointed  out.  Dr.  Von  Hoist  says 
that  when  Americans  have  once  accepted  a  doctrine  as 
true,  they  cling  to  it  long  after  its  falsity  has  been  de- 
monstrated.    Perhaps  we  are  not  the  only  people   of 


THE    TARIFF  QUESTION.  2$ 

whom  this  may  be  said.  It  was  a  favorite  idea  of  Jeffer- 
son's administration  to  humble  England  by  laying  an 
embargo  on  our  own  commerce.  As  England  sought  to 
cripple  and  restrict  our  foreign  trade  by  her  Orders  in 
Council,  we  thought  it  would  be  wise  to  extinguish  it 
entirely  by  our  own  act.  This  was  one  of  the  doctrines 
accepted  as  true  by  our  ancestors,  and  accordingly  ad- 
hered to  long  after  bankruptcy  had  ravaged  our  seaports, 
and  not  abandoned  till  hunger  and  despair  scourged 
them  from  it.  A  protective  tariff  is  a  lesser  embargo, 
and  it  may  be  that  more  bankruptcy,  more  hunger,  and 
new  riots  will  be  needed  to  uproot  the  deep  prejudices 
which  cluster  around  it.  In  some  quarters  pride  of 
opinion  is  to  be  overcome,  in  others  the  inveterate  cow- 
ardice which  protection  engenders  stands  in  the  way. 
Some  trades  are  enabled  to  monopolize  the  domestic 
markets  by  means  of  the  tariff,  and  sell  their  surplus  to 
foreigners  at  lower  rates  than  they  charge  home  con- 
sumers. Others,  by  dint  of  superior  finesse,  have 
gained  advantages  over  their  fellows  in  the  tariff  legisla 
tion,  which  they  are  not  willing  to  exchange  for  any 
thing  they  can  see  in  foreign  trade,  however  prosperous. 
Then  there  are  trades  not  suited  to  the  country,  which 
have  been  forced  into  a  dropsical,  hydrocephalic  growth 
by  enormous  duties — trades  in  which  the  producer  and 
the  smuggler  wage  a  never-ending  contest,  and  where 
the  laborer  is  most  commonly  on  a  strike.  All  these 
may  be  expected  to  resist  any  change  in  a  system  ruin- 
ous to  the  country  and  eventually  to  themselves.  Nev- 
2 


26  THE    TARIFF  QUESTION. 

ertheless  the  forces  of  gaunt  penury  are  working  for  free 
trade  among  us  as  they  did  in  England  before  Robert 
Peel  abandoned  protection.  I  hold  it  historically  true 
that  Great  Britain  learned  the  lesson  of  free  trade,  not 
through  her  head,  but  through  her  stomach.  Her 
Adam  Smiths  and  her  Huskissons  educated  the  few,  but 
famine  was  the  schoolmaster  of  the  million.  The 
mighty  pressure  of  our  resources,  our  idle  capital,  our 
unemployed  labor,  is  bearing  down  upon  the  wall  erected 
against  foreign  trade.  It  will  burst  that  barrier  ere  long, 
and  it  is  for  the  protected  classes  to  say  whether  the 
work  shall  be  done  with  their  consent  and  assistance,  or 
in  the  face  of  their  opposition. 

If  anybody  can  show  how  else  our  industrial  condi- 
tion is  to  be  improved — how  else  than  by  selling  our 
surplus  in  foreign  countries  and  by  consequence  taking 
our  pay  in  the  products  of  foreign  countries — let  him 
expound  the  process.  Many  hazy  devices  are  offered 
for  our  acceptance,  but  when  subjected  to  the  test,  How 
will  this  plan  cause  the  American  people  to  consume 
more  than  they  do  now,  so  that  the  surplus  of  our  mills, 
mines,  and  factories  shall  find  a  market  ?  they  are  shown 
to  be  visionary  and  delusive.  It  may  be  asked.  How 
will  free  trade  enable  foreigners  to  consume  more  of  our 
products  than  they  do  now  ?  I  answer,  by  furnishing 
them  at  less  cost,  less  by  the  amount  of  the  taxes  levied 
upon  them  directly  and  indirectly  under  the  tariff.  But 
if  free  trade  should  not  enable  foreigners  to  buy  more  of 
our  products,  we  could  not  buy  more  of  theirs  ;  there- 


THE    TARIFF  QUESTION.  2/ 

fore  no  harm  would  be  done.  "  But  there  would  be  an 
immediate  inundation  of  foreign  goods,"  says  some  pro- 
tected manufacturer.  Let  us  not  forever  argue  in  a 
circle.  It  has  already  been  shown  that  we  have  all  the 
conditions  requisite  for  competing  successfully  witli 
other  manufacturing  countries.  The  only  point  in 
which  we  differ  from  them  is  in  the  multiplicity  of  taxes 
and  artificial  burdens  that  we  impose  upon  ourselves 
under  the  name  of  protection.  Strike  off  these  taxes, 
remove  these  burdens,  make  revenue  the  sole  object  of 
the  tariff,  then,  if  there  be  any  industry  still  alive  which 
cannot  hold  its  own,  there  will  be  the  best  grounds  for 
believing  that  it  is  not  adapted  to  the  country,  that  it  is 
an  exotic  and  a  parasite,  and  so  let  it  perish  ;  we  shall  be 
better  off  without  it.  If  the  protected  classes  cannot 
assist  in  the  work  of  tariff  reform,  if  they  would  rather 
He  where  they  are,  "  till  famine  and  the  ague  eat  them 
up,"  the  country,  I  am  persuaded,  will  nevertheless  take 
it  up  without  their  help^  and  without  much  delay. 

The  suggestion  has  been  thrown  out  by  interested 
parties  and  maintained  with  considerable  force  in  the 
lobbies  of  Congress,  that  new  markets  should  be  opened 
by  subsidies  from  the  national  treasury  to  new  railway 
and  canal  companies.  The  construction  of  these  rail- 
ways and  canals,  it  is  alleged,  would  create  a  demand  for 
iron,  timber,  and  labor,  and  "  set  the  wheels  of  industry 
in  motion."  This  is  one  of  the  half-truths  with  which 
impudence  commonly  arms  itself  when  it  goes  to  Wash- 
ington to  get  something  it  ought   not  to  have.     The 


28  THE    TARIFF  QUESTION. 

burning  of  the  Pittsburgh  depots,  cars,  round  houses, 
and  machine  shops  will  create  as  much  demand  for  iron, 
timber,  and  labor,  in  order  to  replace  what  has  been  de- 
stroyed, and  will  set  as  many  wheels  of  industry  in  mo- 
tion as  the  building  of  two  hundred  miles  of  new  railway. 
The  burning  of  Chicago,  a  few  years  ago,  furnished  more 
employment  than  the  whole  of  the  Texas  and  Pacific 
railway  could  supply,  even  if  it  were  subsidized  to  the 
full  measure  of  its  projectors'  wishes.  But  as  nobody 
would  think  of  burning  up  property  in  order  to  create  a 
demand  for  labor,  or  of  engaging  in  unprofitable  and  un- 
necessary work  for  that  end,  the  argument  for  subsidies 
from  Congress,  based  upon  the  need  of  helping  the  suf- 
fering and  prostrated  iron  workers,  is  fatally  defective. 
There  are  many  reasons  for  refusing  to  vote  such  subsi- 
dies, but  the  only  one  appropriate  to  be  considered  here 
is  that  the  relief  ends  when  the  subsidy  ends.  Some  few 
wheels  of  industry  will  revolve  as  long  as  the  artificial 
stimulus  lasts,  and  then  they  will  cease  to  turn,  and  the 
silence  will  be  profounder  than  before.  Not  so  with  the 
remedy  which  looks  to  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe  for 
I  market,  and  which  builds  up  its  own  demand  by  offer- 
ing a  market  in  return  to  the  endless  family  of  man. 
We  offer  a  self-sustaining  remedy  which  costs  not  a 
dollar. 

It  may  be  asked.  Why  is  it  that  Great  Britain, 
which  enjoys  free  trade,  is,  like  ourselves  suffering  from 
severe  commercial  depression?  What  reason  is  there 
to  suppose,  looking  at  her  condition,  that  we  should  be 


THE    TARIFF  QUESTION.  2C, 

any  better  off  if  we  too  should  adopt  free  trade?  I 
have  already  stated  that  commercial  crises  come  upon 
countries  regardless  of  their  tariffs  or  their  currencies. 
They  are  the  products  of  speculation,  inflated  prices, 
miscalculation,  erroneous  comparison  of  the  values  of 
things  with  the  value  of  money.  When  they  come  they 
upset  nearly  all  business  arrangements  whatsoever, 
cause  nearly  everybody  to  economize,  restrict  the  de- 
mand for  commodities  to  the  narrowest  limits,  and 
throw  people  out  of  employment.  This  may  happen 
under  a  high  tariff  or  a  low  one,  or  under  no  tariff  at  all. 
But  when  it  does  happen,  which  country  has  the  bet- 
ter chance  for  recovery — the  one  which  is  restricted,  as 
much  as  the  law  can  restrict  it,  to  a  home  market  of 
forty  millions,  or  the  one  which  is  encouraged  and 
accustomed  to  trade  with  every  human  being  on  earth? 
It  is  needless  to  answer  this  question  on  a  priori  grounds. 
We  are  already  informed  officially  that  English  pau- 
perism is  decreasing — that  it  has  decreased  materially 
during  the  past  year.  Is  any  one  bold  enough  to  say 
that  ours  has  not  increased  during  the  same  time? 
Yet  the  British  Islands,  scarcely  larger  in  area  than 
the  States  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  and  not 
more  richly  endowed  by  nature,  though  pestered  by 
land  monopoly  and  many  crippling  old-time  prejudices 
that  we  know  nothing  of,  sustain  a  population  of  thirty- 
two  millions  of  people — three-fourths  that  of  our  entire 
country.  The  timidity  which  protection  breeds  will 
naturally  exclaim  that  Great  Britain   has  already  mon- 


30  THE    TARIFF  QUESTION. 

opolized  the  markets  of  the  world,  and  that  it  is  of  no 
use  for  us  to  contest  their  possession  with  her ;  but 
with  the  example  of  American  cotton  goods  selling  at 
Manchester — an  example  which  protectionists  are  fond 
of  parading  as  a  vindication  of  their  theories — the  public 
may  reasonably  conclude  that  we  can  compete  with 
her  in  Asia  and  South  America,  or  even  in  Iowa  and 
Minnesota.  But  the  advantages  we  seek  are  not  merely 
those  of  successful  competition  with  other  countries  in 
producing  the  same  things  which  they  produce.  Still 
greater  benefits  are  to  be  obtained  by  the  free  exchange 
of  commodities  which  we  can  produce  at  least  cost,  for 
those  which  other  countries  can  produce  at  least  cost — 
as  for  instance,  the  exchange  of  American  cutlery  for 
East  Indian  jute,  or  American  wagons  for  South 
American  wool,  or  American  sewing  machines  for 
English  tin,  or  American  locomotives  for  Russian  hemp. 
Upon  all  or  most  of  this  species  of  trade,  the  manacles 
of  the  tariff  have  likewise  been  loaded — whether  igno- 
rantly  or  designedly  makes  no  difference. 

In  conclusion,  I  repeat,  this  country  is  too  large  for 
protection.  Its  resources,  both  natural  and  acquired 
are  swelling  with  the  pains  of  a  giant  against  the  arti- 
ficial barriers  which  now  close  them  in.  That  they 
will  soon  burst  their  bonds  and  find  their  outlet  and 
satisfaction  in  freedom  of  trade,  either  with  the  help 
and  consent  of  the  protected  classes,  or  spite  of  their 
resistance,  is  my  confident  expectation. 


BY    THE    SAME    AUTHOR. 
THE 

SILVER  QUESTION: 

AN     ESSAY 

ON      THE 

PROPOSED    REMONETIZATION    OF    SILVER 

IN     THE 

UNITED     STATES. 

Read  at  the  General  Meeting  of  the  American  Social 
Science  Association  at  Saratoga,  Sept.  6,  1876. 

O'.tavo,  sewed.  For  sale  by  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  Scribner, 
Armstrong  &  Co.,  New  York,  and  Janskn,  McClurg  &  Co.,  Chi 
cago.    Price  30  cents. 


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